Murder is Everywhere

Midautumn, Moonlight and Gratitude

Ovidia--every other Tuesday

The Mid-Autumn or the Mooncake Festival marks the end of the Hungry Ghost Month and the start of the last quarter of the year. But before saying goodbye to the ghosts, I want to share these talismans my dad-in-law lent me (only half joking) just in case I met anything strange on my evening walks during the Ghost Month.

The little wooden penis, he explained, is for frightening off pontianaks (typically angry female spirits); the tiny Buddhist tablet is a 'power up' and works on all spirits, not just female.

(He is ninety years old, fiercely independent, relaxes by watching survivalist documentaries and is very practical in his way).

The Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the few Chinese festivals where women are favoured. After all, the Lady-Mother in the moon is feminine. For married women, “moon bathing” (walking in the moonlight) is said to bless relationships and keep marriages strong.

Traditionally you would go for moon watching evening picnics where children would play with lanterns and adults would drink osmanthus wine and eat mooncakes.
Nowadays, given how health conscious people are, I'm afraid people are more likely to photograph their mooncakes than eat them.

It's kind of sad though. I remember hearing about how, during the Japanese Occupation, when they were living on the border of starvation, my aunts mashed sweet potatoes with coconut and gula melaka and shaped them into mooncakes around dried mango 'yolks' to surprise their family for the Mooncake Festival and seeing what wonderful memories that created.
It's sad how traditions seem to matter more when they’re threatened.

This year, between the book deadline (I'm running late--I was actually ahead of schedule and decided to go ahead and rewrite down a rabbithole and I'm not sorry yet... but sorely pressed, yes), ongoing renovations (we're getting another 2 rooms done and the condo is repainting all the external walls and balconies so my plants are living indoors for the time being)...

My airplants would really rather be outdoors, but the paint fumes are something powerful when they get some painting done in between thunderstorms.

I don't really mind. I like the rain, though it’s hard on the workers, but this year it's been really relentless.

I didn’t even make it to the neighbourhood festival because everything looked like it was going to be wet and stuffy and slippery.

At least some of the children in the condo are excited about carrying their candlelit lanterns—but also getting it mixed up with the upcoming Halloween party (because: candy). And yes, I'm managing Not to call that an unhealthy imported American custom (again, because: candy).
It's a chance for the neighbours to get together and that's always something to be grateful for.

Because the Mid-Autumn Festival is about giving thanks: thanks for the year's harvest safely gathered in, for last and brightest moon of the year before winter storms set in, for the people around us who may or may not be around when the seasons change again.

It’s also a chance to pause before the year rushes toward its end. So if you can, take a moment to sip a sweet wine or taste a sweet cake and enjoy a moment with this bright, rainy moon.

May your lives be as full of light and happiness as the moon is bright tonight!